Despite residents’ disagreement, the U.S. Postal Service intends to cut hours at the post office in Tilden to six hours of operation during weekdays.

The determination was made at a town hall meeting at noon Tuesday in the McMullen County Courthouse.

More than 60 residents came to the meeting to ask questions and hear survey results from Daniel Reyes III, manager of Post Office Operations for the USPS Rio Grande District’s Alamo Area.

The survey results are as follows: 110 residents chose the realignment of hours while five residents chose to not make a selection from the survey’s questions.

A total of 115 surveys were returned although 480 were mailed to residents.

An option to keep the post office the same was not on the survey.

The USPS began cutting hours and offering other options to rural areas because the service is losing about $25 million a day across the country. To avoid the failing operation, the USPS has taken various measures to curb losses.

Other options included delivery, post office in a business (village post office) or using a nearby post office (Fowlerton is 12.5 miles from Tilden, and Calliham is 18.2 miles away).

Survey results were overwhelmingly for changing hours, but McMullen County Judge Jim Teal said residents were “most definitely” against fewer hours.

The Postal Service will most likely cut the hours to six during weekdays while keeping Saturday hours the same. This change would be implemented in about a month, according to Reyes.

Tentatively, hours would be 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday (with lunch from noon to 1 p.m.).

Teal noted that McMullen County has more than 700 people, but the hours adjustment was based on volume through the post office.

On the other hand, he noted that Tilden is growing, especially with the oil and gas boom because of the Eagle Ford Shale play.

For additional information, please go to:

https://usps.com/ourfuturenetwork and click on the link under “Preserving Post Offices.”